


laughing with a mouth of blood (or: blood bath)

by eldritchbee



Series: Goretober 2020 [13]
Category: Hello Charlotte (Video Games)
Genre: Body Horror, Drowning, Gen, Goretober, Goretober 2020, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Medical Procedures, Terminal Illnesses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27254200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldritchbee/pseuds/eldritchbee
Summary: “You can move and breathe and speak with the parasite in you - only Wiltshire has been able to do that - and you think oh, after all of that, after the surgery was a success, after Felix worked so hard to give me the head start I wanted, I’m just going to drown in blood and vomit before I even begin.” He has a cool washcloth in his hands and moves forward to wipe blood from her face. She jerks away, and so he hands it to her instead.He doesn’t move from her side, though.---Scarlett has trouble asking for help, as the Oracle will point out. At least Felix is there to patch her up. Spoilers for Hello Charlotte 3.For Goretober 2020 (prompt #23 - blood bath)
Relationships: Scarlett Eyler & Felix Honikker, Scarlett Eyler & The Oracle
Series: Goretober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1950091
Kudos: 7





	laughing with a mouth of blood (or: blood bath)

_"i'm sending consolation prizes to my next of kin_  
_and i can't see the future, but i know it's watching me"_

* * *

She’s been coughing up blood for days now, more than a human body can realistically have inside of it. Buckets upon buckets - yet while she feels weaker and more tired than ever before, she does not die.

(Or, perhaps she does die, but the parasite from Wiltshire’s mind doesn’t allow her to. Perhaps she does die, but Wiltshire _herself_ has placed a curse on her, to revive and revive and revive until they meet again.)

When she sleeps, the Oracle twists and turns on decaying muscle and hands and fingers and toes and eyes and pus all around her. Encircling her. It creates a bare room with empty shelves, and an inch of thick blood that encompasses the entire room, like a house that’s been flooded with water. Oracle shifts, wrapping around her, and Scarlett thinks they sound more like a purring cat than a person. 

At least until they speak.

“The house _is_ flooding,” they say, voice slick and wet as the glob of flesh that now lightly passed the back of Scarlett’s neck. “ _Your_ house. That boy cracked your skull open to put me in, and I brought the rain through your broken roof. The foundation was _weak_ , did you realize how weak you were? and we’re starting to _sink_. No one can patch it up anymore, no one can save you -” she moves, shoving the shifting mass away from her. All she manages to do is slip in the flood and fall to the ground, as the pool of blood rises and rises to fill the room. “Or, no, is it just that nobody _wants_ to? Nobody _wants_ you, nobody _needs_ you,

\- what makes you think you can _fix_ Charlotte Wiltshire? Do you think you can _fix_ your mistakes? Do you think she _wants_ you? That _he'll_ want you? Really?”

_But she said -_

~

In the midst of the fever dream where the Oracle set up camp in her mind she thinks she saw Felix in her weakest moments. There was an IV in her arm to replace the fluid lost. He must have scrubbed the floor a thousand times, and she shakes to think of what would happen if he decided enough was enough and threw her back out to writhe and die without ever seeing Wiltshire again. Once, twice, she’s tried to swallow it down before he could notice, before she ruined his nice clean white tiles. It only made her gag and heave, blood backing up until they feel like they’re pressed behind her eyes, until they’re leaking from her nose as well. Huge clots sticking to the roof of her mouth that she can’t hack up with the rest.

As that all goes, she can’t hide it long, and when he finds out he’s _angry_. “Why are you hiding it? You _human maggot_ , why are you _hiding_ it?” He hooks her up to the IV, “after all of this, do you want to die from _blood loss_? From _dehydration_? Of all the things!” He storms out, but returns quickly with a glass of water and the trash can from his lab for her to spit the clots into. “You can move and breathe and speak with the parasite in you - only Wiltshire has been able to do that - and you think _oh, after all of that, after the surgery was a success, after Felix worked so hard to give me the head start I wanted, I’m just going to drown in blood and vomit before I even begin_.” He has a cool washcloth in his hands and moves forward to wipe blood from her face. She jerks away, and so he hands it to her instead.

He doesn’t move from her side, though.

Eventually, the blood is cleaned and Felix’s face goes from red fury to his usual coldness. He stands. “Thank you for -” she doesn’t know what to say, what to thank him for. “- being... concerned about me?”

He looks at her again, brows furrowed. Lets out a long sigh and turns towards the door again. Before he walks out, he pauses. Doesn’t turn around. “This is the first time I did something that even my Uncle couldn’t do.” It’s quiet, and Scarlett doesn’t question him further. “We’re leaving tomorrow for the fourth floor, _don’t_ get up you are _not_ going today. Get some proper rest.”

She doesn’t tell him that she _can’t_.

She doesn’t tell him the next morning about the world the Oracle set up.

When she went back she was drowning in a sea of thick red, when she went back she was _drowning_. She remembers what it felt like to drown.

\- she remembers what it felt like to drown, as Charles wrapped his arms around them and opened his mouth and breathed the water in - 

~

“- you’re _dying_ , you know.”

~

She remembers drowning, but this time when arms encircle her they do not drag her down. They push her _up_ instead, towards a light, a crack where crumbled shards of bone float. It’s a perfect incision. She’s the perfect size, and the hands push her through. When she goes through, though, she _falls_ from the ceiling of a room. It was the room she’d dreamt of before. Only, this time, the shelves were filled with colorful books, and a piano was shoved against the wall in the back. 

With a loud, wet sound, the Oracle falls behind her. Sighing, the creature rests their head in one of their many gangrenous hands. Scarlett shivers to realize that was what held her up. Saved her.

She looks away. Combs clots from her hair and tries not to think about the fact that her clothes were damp and sticky with blood.

Hands reach out, pull her into an embrace with that same strange purring as before.

“It’ll be you, soon. Rotting. Do you regret it?”

“... is that where Felix drilled? The crack you came through?”

“Mhm.”

“He did a wonderful job, then,” she says. “No, I don't. Even if this goes wrong at least -

\- I was useful to _one_ person.”

**Author's Note:**

> Felix & Scarlett / Charlotte means everything to me and one day I'll write a happy ending.
> 
> Title and lyrics from "Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood" by St. Vincent.


End file.
